


The Return

by Redrikki



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Character Death, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-01
Updated: 2015-04-01
Packaged: 2018-03-20 19:39:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3662490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redrikki/pseuds/Redrikki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Robb sends Theon home to Pyke.  If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Return

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [Theon Appreciation Week](http://rhymeswithloveweek.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr.

The box was full of bones. They had been cleaned of flesh, arranged and dressed in a black velvet doublet embroidered with the golden kraken of House Greyjoy. A battered sword hung from the left hip while a bow and quiver rested against the right. The severed head lay on the chest. The teeth were white and straight and perfect. A smile to melt maids' hearts surely, but for the life of her, Asha could not recall what it had looked like. Shy, she supposed. Her baby brother had been shy and sweet, and now he was nothing.

"You said the greenlanders were too soft to go through with it."

Balon's lips thinned, whether from annoyance at her rebuke or grief that his pride and miscalculation had cost him another son, Asha could not tell. "What does it matter? He was half wolf already."

She considered the damage left by the three, no, four blows it took to separate her brother's head from his shoulders. "Not the right half, apparently." 

"Avenge him, then, if it troubles you so." Her father turned from her and the body of his son both to stare into the fire. His shoulders slumped in something like defeat. "It was a necessary sacrifice. For our people. For you!"

Asha rocked back as if struck. She'd spoken against this course as they had stood over the map. Now was the time to rebel against the Iron Throne, yes, but _with_ the northmen, not against them. "How was this for me?" Asha struggled to keep her voice calm.

Balon seized her shoulders and gave her a hard shake. " _You_ are my heir. My _true_ heir, the one I have raised and groomed to rule after me. There" -he gestured harshly at the coffin- "is one less contestant for your crown. You can thank my ghost when you are queen," he snarled, and stormed from the hall. 

Left alone, Asha resumed her study of her brother's bones. In her head, he had stayed ten, trailing puppy-like and hopeful after her or Dagmar or anyone who would pay attention to him. He had marched to his captivity with his lips a quiver but his chin held high. Asha hoped he'd faced his death the same way, like a Greyjoy. 

"They'll kill him," her mother had wailed when they took him. "They'll kill my baby." Asha dreaded what it would do to her to find she was right. She might thank her father's ghost for this years from now at her queensmoot, but for tonight she would curse what he had done to her family.


End file.
